Sandwich machines



Jan. 13, 1959 Filed Aug. 23, 1950 A. J. GRl-NER SANDWICH 1111011111135 19 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG.

INVENTOR.

ART HUF? J. GRINER ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. J. GRINER 68,

SANDWICH MACHINES Filed Aug. 25. 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR.

A RT l-ILJR J. GRINER Jan. 13, 1959 Filed Aug. 23, 1950 A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES 19 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIC14 INVEN TOR. ARTHUR J. GRINER WXW AT TOR NEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES 19 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Aug. 23. 1950 FIG. 5

INVENTOR. ARTHUR .J.GRINER ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES l9 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Aug. 23, 1950 INVENTOR. ARTHUR J. GRINER BY jfmza;

ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. J. GRINER 2,868,141

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SANDWICH MACHINES I Filed Aug. 25. 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 8 IN V EN TOR.

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V SANDWICH MACHINES Filed Aug. 23,1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 10 FIG.

INVEN TOR.

AR THUR J. GRINER ATTORNEY A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES Ja n. 13, 1959 19 Sheets-Sheet 11 Filed Aug. 25, 1950 \JNVENTOR.' ARTHUR J. GRINER BY 2 g g ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES 19 Sheets-Sheet 12 Filed Aug. 23. 1950 INVENTOR. ARTHUR JGRINER BY f I 6 ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. gRlNER 2,868,141

SANDWICH MACHINES Filed Aug. 25. 1950 19 Sheets Sheet 13 INVENTOR. ARTHUR J. GRINER ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. J. GRINER 2,868,141

SANDWICH MACHINES Filed Aug. 23. 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 14 103 INVENTOR.

F ATTORNEY ARTHUR J. GRIN ER Jan. 13, 1959 A. JKGRINER 1 smnwxcn MACHINES Filed Aug. 25. 1950 19 Shets-Sheet 15 INVENTOR.

ARTHUR J. GRINER V ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 v GRlNER 2,868,141

SANDWICH MACHINES Filed Aug. 23, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet 16 IN VEN TOR.

ARTHLJR J. GRINER www- ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 2,868,141

A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES Filed Aug. 23, 1950 19 Sheets-Sheet l7 llIIIIll,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII,

IN V EN TOR.

ATTORNEY ARTHUR J. GRINEIR Jan. '13,. 1959 A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES 19 Sheets-Sheet 18 Filed Aug 25, 1950 INVENTOR. ARTHUR J. GRINER BY f a ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1959 A. J. GRINER SANDWICH MACHINES 19 Sheets-Sheet 19 Filed Aug. 25, 1950- ii hi IN VEN TOR.

AT TOR N EIY United States Patent SANDWICH MACHINES Arthur J. Griner, Westfield, N. J., assignor to National Biscuit Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application August 23, 1950, Serial No. 180,931

11 Claims. (Cl. 107-1) This invention relates to sandwich machines, and particularly to a machine that receives base cakes, crackers, cookies or the like at one end, forms them into sandwiches with an interposed filler and delivers the completed sandwiches arranged in stacks or groups of a predetermined number at the other end, ready to be wrapped or otherwise enclosed to form packets or individual servings.

In recent years, the demand by the lunch counter and restaurant trade for small packets each containing an individual serving of cookie or cracker sandwiches has increased so rapidly that high speed machines are necessary for production adequate to meet the demand. The present invention makes this possible by producing stacks of sandwiches ata rate higher than has ever been attained before and at a reduced cost. The invention also produces a superior product, in that the sandwiches are more uniform, the top and bottom cakes are in better registry, loss due to breakage and imperfect sandwiches is reduced substantially to the vanishing point and fewer operators are required.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the top and bottom covers of the sandwiches, which are termed cakes or base cakes, are fed by belts in a number of continuous rows to two continuously rotating feed cylinders spaced apart in the line of travel of the cakes and between which is a filler cylinder. Each feed cylinder has as many circumferential rows of cake holders as there are rows of cakes fed to it. The first cylinder removes a cake from each row and deposits it on an endless belt running just below all three cylinders. This belt runs at the same speed as the peripheral speed of all the cylinders. As the cake deposited on the belt by the first feed cylinder passes beneath the filling cylinder, it receives a measured quantity of filler and then is carried by the belt under the second feed cylinder where the top or cover base cake is placed on it to complete the sandwich. The sandwiches are then carried on by the belt to its delivery end and there transferred to a collecting or grouping cylinder which is timed so that as soon as each holder receives a group of sandwiches sufficient to form a packet or serving, usually four or five, the group will be delivered to a flight chain to be carried on to a packaging machine. The entire operation of forming and grouping the sandwiches is performed automatically and manual operation is entirely eliminated.

The invention may be embodied in many forms of apparatus and in the accompanying drawings there is illustrated a preferred form thereof to which reference is made for a full disclosure.

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a complete machine, wherein the base cakes are supplied to the feed cylinders from continuously driven overhead belts;

Fig. 2 is a plan, partly in section, of the left-hand end of the structure shown in Fig. 1, with the delivery chutes and hopper omitted;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the left-hand end of the structure shown in Fig. 1, somewhat enlarged;

Fig. 5 is a view looking in the direction of the arrows 55, Figs. 1 and 2, showing the variable speed drive for the entire machine;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged section of the first feed cylinder, shown at the left-hand side of Figs. 1 and 2, taken substantially on the line 66 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6a is a cross section of one of the feed chutes, taken on line 6a of Fig. 6;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged section of the second feed cy1inder shown at the right-hand side of Figs. 1 and 2, taken substantially on the line 77 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of one of the two similar feed cylinders, in this case the second one, taken substantially on the line 88 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a transverse vertical section through the filler cylinder, taken substantially on line 9-9 of Fig. 2,

and including the hopper;

Fig. 10 is a longitudinal face view, partly in section and partly in elevation, of the filler cylinder of Fig. 9;

Fig. 11 is an enlarged view, partly in section, of one of the pistons in the filler cylinder at discharge position;

Fig. 12 is a detail of the filler cut-01f shown in Figs. 9 and 11;

Fig. 13 is a cross sectional view of the collecting cylinder, taken substantially on line 1313 of Fig. 14, looking in the direction of the arrows, certain of the parts being omitted for clearness of illustration;

.Fig. 14 is a sectional view, taken substantially on line 14-1'4 of Figs. 1 and 13, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 15 is a view similar to Fig. 13, but looking in the direction of the arrows 1515 of Fig. 14;

Figs. 16, 17 and 18 are detail views of one of the grippers on the collecting cylinder;

Fig. 19 is a side elevation, partly broken away, of

the pusher or paddle wheel for sliding groups of sandwiches from the inner to the outer flights;

Fig. 20 is a view taken substantially on line 20-20 of Fig. 19, looking in the direction of the arrows, the

paddles being cut away in part so as to show their operation more clearly;

Fig. 21 is a section taken substantially on line 2121 of Figs. 1, 19 and 20, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figs. 22, 23, 24 and 25 are detail views of the holders or cups on the flight chains;

Fig. 26 is a rear view of the right-hand end of the General description Referring first to Fig. 1, base cakes 25, 26, which may be crackers, cookies, wafers or the like stacked on edge, are carried by belts 27, 28 in a continuous horizontal column to delivery chutes 29, 30, which turn the cakes so as to present them in vertical stacks to the respective feed cylinders 31, 32. Filling material 33, such as peanut butter, fondant, or other suitable substance,

is supplied by a pipe 34 to a hopper 35 from which pockets of an intermediate filler cylinder 36 are filledn 

